Hospitals Reportedly Receive Extortion Threats Over Alleged Oracle Hack

Fierce Healthcare: Hospitals Extorted After Oracle Health Server Breach
Oracle Health reportedly suffered a data breach earlier this year in which hospitals’ patient data were stolen from the company’s legacy servers. The incident has not yet been reported by Oracle but was shared Friday by information security and technology news publication Bleeping Computer, which cited notices Oracle has sent to its hospital customers. That reporting has since been verified by Bloomberg News, whose source also said that the incident is being looked at by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. (Muoio, 3/31)

The Baltimore Sun: Hopkins-Owned Broadway Services LLC To Cut Over 1,000 Jobs By June
A company jointly owned by the Johns Hopkins University and Johns Hopkins Health Systems will close this summer, eliminating over 1,000 jobs, according to a Worker Adjustment and Retaining Notification. Broadway Services LLC, a Baltimore-based contract services company, serves the Maryland and Washington areas, including Hopkins’ Baltimore campuses. The firm provides security, parking services, janitorial, transportation and facility management. (Foster, 3/31)

San Francisco Chronicle: Health Worker Strike At UCSF This Week Will Affect Some Appointments
As many as thousands of unionized University of California health care and technical workers are poised to join in a one-day strike Tuesday across all UC campuses and medical centers, including UCSF Parnassus. The UC-wide strike, led by the University Professional Technical Employees union, UPTE-CWA Local 9119, is slated to last from midnight Monday to 11:59 p.m. Tuesday. It is planned at UCSF Parnassus for 7 a.m. to 2 p.m., according to UPTE, which represents about 20,000 employees, including physician assistants, optometrists, pharmacists, nurse case managers and mental health workers. (Ho, 3/31)

The CT Mirror: Nursing Home Workers To Remind CT Officials A Strike Is Possible
Connecticut’s nursing home and other health care workers will remind state officials Tuesday that federal aid cuts ordered by President Donald J. Trump aren’t the only things they need to address. More than 6,000 nursing home staff spread among more than 60 facilities are working with expired contracts after watching four years of inflation consume their last round of raises — and more. And another 3,500 health care workers, most assisting clients with disabilities in group homes, are similarly due for wage hikes. (Phaneuf, 3/31)

In pharmaceutical developments —

The New York Times: Johnson & Johnson Loses In Court Again In Bid To Settle Talc Cases 
A federal bankruptcy judge in Houston on Monday rejected Johnson & Johnson’s request to approve a $9 billion settlement with tens of thousands of people who are suing the company over claims that its talcum powder products caused cancer. The proposal would have resolved nearly all current and future claims that the company’s talc products contained asbestos and caused cancer. Like the previous two efforts — in 2021 and 2023 — the deal tried to use an element of the bankruptcy system to settle the claims. (Segal, 3/31)

FiercePharma: Judge Levies $1.64B Penalty On J&J In HIV Drug Marketing Case
Nearly a year after a jury decided that Johnson & Johnson should be fined just over $150 million in a lawsuit alleging that the company engaged in misleading marketing tactics for two of its HIV meds, a judge has upped the penalty more than tenfold. (Park, 3/31)

CIDRAP: Digging In The Dirt: Scientists Discover A New Antibiotic Compound From An Old Source
At a time when the news about the antibiotic pipeline hasn't been great, a team of Canadian and US scientists say they've made a discovery they hope could lead to an entirely new class of antibiotics. The discovery is an antibiotic peptide that was identified in bacteria from soil that had been grown for a year in a lab at McMaster University in Ontario. After observing that a substance produced by a bacterium from one of the soil samples showed antibacterial activity against multidrug-resistant bacterial species, researchers from McMaster and the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) were able to identify the peptide, which they named lariocidin, as the molecule responsible for the activity. (Dall, 3/31)

FiercePharma: Sanofi's Versatile Qfitlia Scores FDA Nod To Enter Crowded Hemophilia Market
Over the last three years, the FDA has approved six new hemophilia drugs, including three gene therapies. Into this crowded treatment landscape comes another new medicine as the FDA has signed off on Sanofi’s Qfitlia (fitusiran), which sets itself apart as the only treatment for all types of hemophilia. Not only is Qfitlia for those with hemophilia A and B, but unlike most treatments for the disorder, it also can be used by patients regardless of their inhibitor status. (Dunleavy, 3/28)

Fierce Healthcare: Evernorth Expands Coverage Of NeuroStar Depression Therapy To Adolescents
Cigna's Evernorth unit is expanding coverage for Neuronetics' therapy for depression to adolescents. Neuronetics announced that Evernorth will offer coverage for its NeuroStar Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) therapy to patients aged 15 and older who have major depressive disorder. The treatment uses magnetic pulses on different parts of the brain, offering an option for severe depression that does not have the same side effects as medication-based therapies. (Minemyer, 3/31)